Postgraduate Diploma in Creative Practice

Are you passionate about creativity and cultural expression? Develop advanced academic, practical and creative skills through an exhibition, publication or industry project and access multi-disciplinary creative studios supervised by industry leading educators, artists and designers. The Postgraduate Diploma in Creative Practice offers a highly flexible studio or industry based programme based at Unitec’s Creative Industries cultural hub.

In the first semester, a combination of taught, negotiated or studio courses allow you to tailor the learning experience to your specialist creative research interests, whether these fall into traditional (graphic design, industrial design, photography, animation, visual arts, performance) or hybrid domains (service design, experience design, design for social innovation, performance or production design, transmedia, interdisciplinary practice).

Your second semester involves conceptualising, proposing and implementing advanced creative research. You will be supervised and mentored by academic staff and/or industry professionals. Creative projects may take place on campus or be integrated into a relevant workplace.

Highlights

Create a body of new work, improve your job opportunities, and refresh or re-orient your profession.

Develop critical self-reflection, creative thinking and research skills by taking your practice to an advanced level.

Work in an evolving multi-disciplinary environment where you will get exposure to a wide range of approaches, practices, and theories.

Improve your communication and project proposal skills through studio critiques and written components.

Learn from supervisors that include notable artists, designers, and educators.

Enhance your creative portfolio with a significant advanced research project.

Related Programmes

Admission requirements

For this programme, you will need the following:

1. A Bachelor’s degree in the same or similar discipline; OR
2. A Bachelor’s degree in an unrelated discipline with a minimum of two years’ appropriate work experience AND demonstrate an ability to succeed in the programme by providing:

Recommendations from employers or professional colleagues; and

Evidence of outcomes in the discipline work environment.

3. 8 credits at NCEA Level 2 in English (4 in reading, 4 in writing).
4. If English is your second language, you will need one or more of the following:

Have achieved NCEA Level 3 and New Zealand University entrance

Be able to provide evidence you satisfy our criteria for existing English proficiency

Have achieved at least one English proficiency outcome in the last two years

To critically analyse creative practice as both a process and an outcome. This course allows participants to devise and conduct a small creative practice based research project that demonstrates intellectual independence and analytical rigour within a framework of information and principles related to contemporary creative industry practice. This course is designed to enable participants to explore their creativity in a practice based learning environment.

To critically analyse creative practice as both a process and an outcome. This course allows participants to devise and conduct an extended creative practice based research project that demonstrates intellectual independence and analytical rigour within a framework of information and principles related to contemporary creative industry practice. This course is designed to enable participants to explore their creativity in a practice based learning environment.

To enable students to undertake negotiated learning in a practice based work environment. Students will employ a range of vocational, research and critical skills that are contextually, culturally and politically relevant to the emergent creative practitioner. This course allows students to participate in an internship/industry placement in a work based setting or undertake a piece of action research reflecting their own practice in the arts organisation in which they are employed

To enable students to undertake negotiated learning in a practice based work environment. Students will employ a range of vocational, research and critical skills that are contextually, culturally and politically relevant to the emergent creative practitioner. This course allows students to participate in an extended internship/industry placement in a work based setting or undertake a piece of action research reflecting their own practice in the arts organisation in which they are employed.

To analyse critical and theoretical dimensions, key principles and approaches for a specialist area of creative arts practice through the comparative critical reading of selected texts (written word, oral presentations, creative works and researched essays, etc.). This course is designed to challenge existing ideas about creative practice by surveying the landscape of contemporary theory and to enable the positioning of those ideas into the students personal frame of practice.

To provide both a documentation and record of understanding of research methodological practice for collaborative creative arts practice, which incorporates a demonstrated understanding of the theories and methodologies of key practitioners/theorists associated with a specialist study area. This course is designed to enable students with a methodological foundation with which to design, implement, and analyse research projects in a variety of contexts.

To enable a student to pursue an individualised course of study of particular interest, and which is empathetic with the aims of the programme and will contribute to the graduate profile. The course content may comprise of an agreed selection of the Workshops, Seminars and Masterclasses offered as part of the Specialist Electives for this programme, or may contain other negotiated outcomes.

To enable a learner to pursue an extended individualised course of study of particular interest, and which is empathetic with the aims of the programme and will contribute to the graduate profile. The course content may generally comprise of an agreed selection of the Workshops, Seminars and Masterclasses offered as part of the Specialist Electives for this programme, or may contain other negotiated outcomes

Title

Disclaimer

The 'Key Information for Students' below does not reflect any international student information.

Please take this information as a guideline only. For example, you will often see a difference between these tuition fees and our estimate above. This is because there are a number of variables, such as the specific courses chosen within a programme.

The national graduate outcomes information is for all tertiary New Zealand providers including Unitec. This information is provided by the New Zealand Government and is derived from a national database that links educational and income information.

Key Information for Students

Entry requirements

Minimum requirements:
A relevant degree or a recognised degree with two years work experience and proof of work plus English language requirements. Special admission also accepted.

The Minister of Education, Chris Hipkins, has announced the Government’s Roadmap 2020 proposal which would bring together New Zealand’s 16 Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics (ITPs) to form a single...